It's weird looking back at only the 2016 England squad and how limited the options were when players were away at 7's. Now plenty of the 7's players may well struggle to return to the XV's squad in 2019 if they perform like they did against Canada.

Says something about the development structures and the next generation coming through when the mixture of 1sts and 2nds got thumped by a similar make-up of Canucks ... was it a couple of years ago in the US? ... and now there's this great level of competition for spots.

The development structures for women have certainly grown in England, though I'd wager the female Rugby population tripling from after we hosted the 2010 world cup tournament and 2016. Also far more opportunities for girls as now many more can start it before university.

Quote:

In my circle at least, there's a bit of worry about where we're heading over the next few years. I'm told by a friend in British Columbia, where I used to coach, that the women's premier league is basically one team now and even they aren't as stacked as they used to be.

I think things are looking better in Ontario's top league, but our national coaches still seem to over-value people who play in British Columbia. Many good players have moved out there over the years, but I often wonder which good ones who are firmly rooted in Ontario (especially, though there could be hidden gems in other provinces as well) with jobs, family, etc. are over-looked?

It seems a shame Rugby Canada's top brass seems weirdly myopic about what actions they take with the sport. The centralisation, the ignoring of players seems daft. But the WRC final a few years ago and olympic bronze may have really papered over the cracks somewhat.

A nice step forward here. I suspect harder to do in 15's because of the far greater pay and far greater numbers/ national 7's players play against other 7's players who are paid. In XVs I don't think a union can fund a national team without creating a have's and 'have-not' in the domestic league. I believe the RFU is trying to push the women's game so the whole league can become semi-professional first and increase income revenues.

More fall-out by the complete mistreatment and lack of support for women's Rugby in Ireland for the world cup and how it's genuinely damaged the game there rather than kicked it on. Jenny Murphy, the very definition of a great player who gives 100% every moment on the pitch is taking a break. possibly leaving the game because of how the bitter experience of the WRWC last year.

The link is a good and complex view of how hard it can be for dedicated sporting women in rugby who have to train at a professional level while maintaining full time work and promoting the game. Often the only reward they get for their efforts is the knowledge they are giving the women's game more exposure and thus more opportunities for the next generation of girls.

IT WAS SUPPOSED to leave a legacy — it might still yet — but a tournament which promised so much quickly turned pernicious and poisonous, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

The fallout was as expected, but the ripple effect continues.

Jenny Murphy, one of the pillars of the team, and poster girls for the game in this country, has fallen out of love with the sport. Disillusioned, deterred and discouraged by the adversity on the field and the calamitous goings on off it.

Jenny Murphy dejected after the game Murphy says she knew after the World Cup she needed a break from rugby. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

It has all taken its toll, all contributing to a complete erosion of motivation and enthusiasm. A draining, and deflating, World Cup experience will do that to you.

Murphy needs a break, she needed to get away from that environment, that dressing room. That in itself is the most damning indictment of what happened last summer. One of Ireland’s foremost, and most important, players making herself unavailable for selection.

And not even a change of management and the promise of a fresh start, a new era could convince her otherwise. There was no way Murphy could pick herself off the canvas to go again straight away. To reset back to zero and do it all again.

Time can act as a healer, and the pain of failure is subsiding as the months pass, but it all still hurts. A home World Cup was supposed to be the highlight for this generation of players, so when it all came crashing down around them in front of family and friends and an expectant nation — dreams dashed and hopes quashed — it was tough to take.

“It still sucks,” Murphy admits, briefly re-opening those deep wounds from last August.

Shortly after their sorry campaign ended with defeat to Wales in Belfast, members of the squad headed to Las Vegas for Ruth O’Reilly’s hen party. It was then, after a cycle which had seen Murphy’s life revolve around getting fit for the World Cup and then her every waking moment preparing for a tournament like no other, could she relax. And tune out. And realise it was time to move on.

“I love playing for Ireland, but you have to really want to be there,” she says. “You need to be 100% committed.”

And that’s not what she could promise to herself, her team-mates or to new head coach Adam Griggs.

That’s not fair. I would feel like I would be taking up a space for someone else who would kill for that spot. I’ve been playing since 2012 and I just needed a refresher to recharge the batteries. I guess to fall back in love with the game.”

But for Murphy, it is not all about the game anymore.

After starring at the 2014 World Cup in France, when Ireland famously defeated New Zealand to advance to the semi-finals, she spent an extended period on the sideline and was in a race to be fully fit for last summer’s tournament. It became the be-all and end-all.

“Anytime I got a new calendar, that — World Cup, August 2017 — would be the first thing that would go in it.”

Murphy returned in time for last year’s Six Nations to feature for Ireland as they pushed England to the wire. Everything was going to plan. All the right noises were coming from the camp, but it soon became obvious that all was not right, culminating in O’Reilly’s remarkable interview which revealed the underlying frictions within the camp and the systematic flaws which hampered preparations and completely undermined Tom Tierney as the leader of his group.

“We underperformed, didn’t play nice rugby,” Murphy admits. “We let ourselves and the jersey down. It was just deflating and I just couldn’t find the motivation to come back.

Jenny Murphy with Caroline Drouin Murphy said she hopes to return to the international fold again in 2019. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

“Then as well as that, there was the slog of…we’re entirely amateur and I needed to look at myself going forward. I didn’t want to live like a student and keep doing this.

“I want to do everything 100%, but I also need to mind myself.”

Murphy isn’t the only one who had to look towards the future. Retirements were inevitable, and plentiful. Then Sophie Spence — a World Rugby Player of the Year nominee three short years ago — was told she wasn’t in the Six Nations squad.

Spence yesterday admitted the senior players should have acted before the tournament. To take a stand and make their voices heard. It might have changed things, it might have helped avoid the disaster which unfolded.

“There are a lot of things we could have done better,” Murphy says. “To end with two disappointing defeats, that will always weigh you down. When you think of 2017 now, it’s eighth place which is not what we had envisaged at all.”

You can tell it still hurts. It’s still raw.

She pauses, looks at the ceiling, and then continues.

“Hindsight is a great thing. At the time we did what we thought was best. Maybe looking back on it we could have done something differently but we were just focused on the games and what we needed to implement our game plans.

“We weren’t really thinking, we were just taking each game as it came. It was Australia up first and there was a level of excitement and stuff and as the tournament got closer, it wasn’t that we didn’t have time to fix stuff but we thought we’d be able to…we thought we’d be able to… do better than we did.

I know that’s not the clearest of answers. But we did genuinely, as players, have chats and discuss it. But we did what was right at the time. Maybe we could have made some better decisions.”

It was a difficult time, wasn’t it?

“Yeah.”

You sound weary of it all?

“Weary is maybe too strong a word, but it was just disappointing. Trying to motivate yourself to get back after…”

As much as Murphy lacked the drive to get back on the horse, her decision was also influenced by the fact she wanted to move on with her life. To get a job that interested her and was sustainable for the future.

When a chance conversation with the founders of a new start-up company called Pep Talk piqued her interest, she was taken on in a role which involves ‘a little bit of everything’, including marketing and social media work.

Jenny Murphy celebrates winning with her family Murphy with her family after the World Cup win over Australia. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

By that stage, Murphy was firm in her decision to step away from the national team for the 2018 season and her mind was made up before the IRFU’s move to advertise the head coach vacancy on a part-time basis.

“It was disappointing,” she says. “We want to stay ahead of the curve so when you don’t see that happening, it’s quite frustrating.”

When Griggs, who is also the Leinster women’s coach, was appointed before Christmas he held discussions with Murphy about her international future. He tried his best to persuade her to commit for the Six Nations.

“I had already said ‘no, I’m making the right decision for me.’

“Hopefully me stepping away for a year and focusing on other things, I’ll come back into the rugby fold if they’ll have me and be better for the team in the long run.”

Griggs had twisted Murphy’s arm to get her to play in the inter-pros last month but having suffered a second head injury in the space of a few months during a club game for Old Belvedere, she was stood down with concussion.

That’s the last game of rugby the Leinster centre has played, but Murphy insists she hasn’t slammed the door shut behind her. This is, she says, a sabbatical, rather than a permanent decision to step away and pull the curtain on her international career.

She is keen to explore new opportunities, including the possibility of extending her sporting prowess into the boxing ring having already mixed rugby with Gaelic football and soccer in her formative years.

“I want to explore other sports for the year,” Murphy explains. “Try something different and hopefully if I’m playing well enough next year, I’ll put my hand up for selection again.

“I might go back to GAA, but I was maybe looking at boxing or something like that.

“In the back of my head, it’s always, ‘will this help my rugby end goal?’ And I think it would. I have to start now but I’m still focused on the club [Old Belvedere] at the moment.

“My uncle would be big into boxing. He’s based in Ballymore Eustace. They’ve got good training down there but I think the commute might be a bit too much for me so I’ll look for a place around Dublin.”

Bold players play in England (Luffbra seems a very popular choice for Scots), italics play in france (as professionals)

It should be an interesting game, Scotland didn't even qualify for the past few World Cups. However they have a spine of a team who play high quality Rugby in a good team and are paying for two players to be professional in France and they seem to want to take it more seriously. I can see them making rapid improvements. However they lost to Spain twice before finally beating them last year so this will be an interesting marker.

... looking at that feed, what's happened to Laura Keates and Sasha Acheson? Two very mobile props that I thought would take over and be world-beaters.

Laura Keates injured her Achilles in June, so she’s still on her way back from that. All I know about Sasha Acheson is that she had quite a nasty injury a couple of years back, and had since fallen out of favour, though I don’t know why.

The headline form Wales women is they have 10 uncapped players in their squad. Which seems to be the headline every year with the bets players going off for Rugby 7's. Though to be fair more depth and quality does appear to have surfaced in Wales, if they can just get their back line moving.:

Some great scorelines. The Neatherlands women beat the British army 44-22. To put that in context the British army has multiple England and Welsh internationals, they would be a top 12 international side at the least. This may mean come the euro cup Germany will find life difficult as the dutch women look potent and may be edging to that level of Italy, Spain and Scotland.

There has also just been the biggest League results of the season as Wasps Ladies beat undefeated Saracens in the rain. 5-0 in what sounds like an epic of a match and a great piece of running by Danielle Waterman after Wasps pressure to break the deadline.

It looks as predicted from the November tests. I do wonder if Bryony Cleall, Poppy Clealls twin will ever get picked? If physicality and ruck street smarts has been an issue, she surely adds plenty of that.

It looks as predicted from the November tests. I do wonder if Bryony Cleall, Poppy Clealls twin will ever get picked? If physicality and ruck street smarts has been an issue, she surely adds plenty of that.

With Jess Breach having been shifted to the 7s team, I wonder who the first choice 11 will be? I'm guessing Abi Dow and Danielle Waterman will be 14 and 15. Perhaps Ellie Kildunne on the other wing? Should still be a very strong back 3, whoever is chosen.

I genuinely don't understand how the ladies do at 7's. England should have among the most rapid team, players with skill and defense. There is something fundamentally wrong with the set-up that doesn't know how to play 7's. I believe the RFU should start making 7's and XV's two separate programs in player base and coaching.

For all the investment in women's rugby in England, I'm not sure the RFU are actually getting the best people to coach and run these teams.

It's very rare anyone is allowed a week off when you're training to be a firefighter, but when England Rugby came calling for Shaunagh Brown last November, Kent Fire and Rescue made an exception.

"I got let off, very kindly, from my recruit course, which is very unheard of because it was three months and we were told we couldn't have time off; but being England they gave me a week," explained Brown.

It was enough time for England head coach Simon Middleton to recognise the talents of the Harlequins back rower, who won her first cap against Canada in the autumn.

Now a fully qualified firefighter, Brown has signed an England Elite Player contract before the Six Nations and has a simple goal: "To get a start for England - you can't really predict that, but all I can do is do my best, work hard and learn the England way.

"Overall in the Six Nations we want to win it and whether that means me only getting five minutes at the end of a game, then so be it."

Brown has joined a squad looking to defend their Six Nations Grand Slam title, starting away to Italy on Sunday, 4 February.

The Red Roses are going through a transition after the 2017 World Cup, with a number of core players involved in that campaign - which ended with defeat by New Zealand in the final - now playing rugby sevens full time.

It's created opportunities for players like 27-year-old Brown, who also has a background in commercial diving.

"I was a British Gas engineer and I just got to the stage where I wasn't enjoying it," she said.

"I just met some guys who were commercial divers and I looked into it, found the course up in Fort William in Scotland and trained to be a commercial diver.

"It was a lot of stuff in the Thames, lots of stuff in rivers, quarries, nothing fancy at all. Generally you can't see anything either but again, if you're working in the Thames you don't really want to see."Harlequins' Shaunagh Brown is tackledBrown plays her club rugby in the famous quartered shirts of south west London side Harlequins

However, there were also more glamorous jobs for Brown, working on film sets assisting underwater shoots.

"Before everyone gets in you do the construction of a set and put the scaffolding down and platforms where they need them, but once everyone's filming you're just in there as a safety person in case anything goes wrong," she said.

"One of the best jobs was literally just holding a fan at a lady in a red dress that had to be puffed up enough.

"I did do a set with Jeremy Irons for an ocean conservation project he was doing. He was cool, he turned up as you would expect with his cravat on and his hat and he was just very lovely and la-de-da, a really nice guy."

Diving didn't always pay the bills though, and that's when Brown went into the Fire Service.

Her knowledge of breathing apparatus did give her an edge at times in training, although she said the hardest part was learning first aid.

"You have the traumas in a car crash and you kind of forget that a firefighter is normally the first one on scene," she said.

"You're cutting people out but you've also got to deal with the physical aspects of what's wrong with the person inside and just how traumatising it can be.

"Luckily I haven't seen anything too bad yet but there's a support system in place for when things do get too much and get on top of you."

On the sporting stage Brown is no stranger to pressure.

She dabbled in boxing and before rugby had already represented her country in discus, shot putt and hammer, competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the latter.

"I've been on international stages before so I can relate to the intensity of training and how serious things are - but I'm not finished yet though," she insisted.Shaunagh Brown throws the hammer in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth GamesBrown finished 11th in the women's hammer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games

As a relative newcomer to rugby she has plenty of homework at England's training camp at Bisham Abbey in Marlow.

"The most difficult one is line-outs - there's so many different options and learning so many different positions," she said.

"But everyone helps - Tamara Taylor and Abbie Scott help out a lot. We've also got the footage and I can go back and look over it just by myself in my room to learn what the calls are."

Despite her rookie status Brown is eager to play and prove herself during the Six Nations campaign.

"The reason I'm here is to be on the pitch and nobody else would be here otherwise," she said.

I genuinely don't understand how the ladies do at 7's. England should have among the most rapid team, players with skill and defense. There is something fundamentally wrong with the set-up that doesn't know how to play 7's. I believe the RFU should start making 7's and XV's two separate programs in player base and coaching.

For all the investment in women's rugby in England, I'm not sure the RFU are actually getting the best people to coach and run these teams.

Some have been in that system for a few years now. I can't say that I've watched them recently, but a couple of years ago I did think that they were too much like a XVs team, going into contact rather than finding space and making supporting runs before contact. But the defence also seems to be an issue if they're giving up so many tries.

I don't know anything about James Bailey's coaching ability / journey, but I just did read a scathing article about Phil Neville's appointment to the women's football team. I do wonder at times when a young former pro male is appointed to coach a women's team. Do they know their stuff? Is this just a stepping stone for them? Were they put there for this to be a learning opportunity rather than to give the women the best possible coach they could get? (I immediately felt that about Tom Tierney's appointment for Ireland women, and was disappointed that my fears came true ... )

In my experience, women don't want to be treated any different than men in terms of being up-front with feedback, intensity of sessions, etc but there are subtler differences in how the majority (not all, though!) learn and develop. It could also be that a coach doesn't push them as far as they actually can go. It might not be fair to say from a few clips, but some of the drills I see the Ireland women doing on twitter are very, very basic and I can see elements in the way they perform them that could be addressed to fix technique.

I have no doubt the women are getting a professional coaching experince and the coaches aren't giving it 100%. However the fact is are the women getting coaches who are proven successes? You can 20 people given the same coaching courses, tutorials, mentoring and qualifications but some of them will just be considerable be better and more successful coaches. It seems to me the women get coaches in the system, doing a good job but aren't exactly proven that they can transfer the theory to the practical an ca mkake those sort od decisions and communicate t the team in ways that boost their performance more than others. Some coaches are just more talented at the job then others.

In the English domestic league, Waterloo got their first domestic win of the season beating Darlington Mowden Park Sharks 18-10. Well deserved for all their results they have always been reported y opponentsd as being tough opponents who are no walkovers. The ever improving Loughborough beat Wasps, both sides depleted of their England stars. Gloucester beat rivals Bristol before thrashing Worcester while Bristol followed it up with an epic victory over Harlequins.

So overall the top two seem certain to be Saracens and Harlequins, Wasps will nab 3rd and as expected Bristol (who have looked better under new coach Kim Oliver) Gloucester battling out for 4th. The new entrance here is Loughborough have grown as the season progressed and look to have entered that big battle for 4th place.

Where are these U20s coming from? When I was coaching in England in 2005, it seemed there was very little girls' rugby at all. A few clubs running programs, but virtually nothing in schools. We've had a ton of girls playing in schools since the 90s, but still aren't producing oodles of talent to bring us on par (let alone beyond!) with England and New Zealand at the top end.

You know my stance on how our coaching is generally poor with little opportunities for coaches to get educated. Is it a combo of more girls playing in good competitions with great coaches guiding them through?

Where are these U20s coming from? When I was coaching in England in 2005, it seemed there was very little girls' rugby at all. A few clubs running programs, but virtually nothing in schools. We've had a ton of girls playing in schools since the 90s, but still aren't producing oodles of talent to bring us on par (let alone beyond!) with England and New Zealand at the top end.

You know my stance on how our coaching is generally poor with little opportunities for coaches to get educated. Is it a combo of more girls playing in good competitions with great coaches guiding them through?

I get that. My early personal attempts at getting girls to play 8 years ago were just abject failure. The girl's women's Rugby scene changed rapidly, very rapidly after 2010 (The hosting of the women's RWC awareness increased it among girls). Around then I found a number of girl's who were asking me if I could do a girl's team. I got about 10 names, did a few training sessions, but I literally rung 40 schools (private and state) and not one were interested in joining us. Rossalyn park was also the only club who offered to to do something, but their issue then was that there was literally no games they could offer as they didn't know any girl's teams or any women who could play 14-15 year old's as they knew of nobody who started before university. Naturally it ended the girls interest except one 17 year old girl who continued to come for 4 more sessions on her own, I had to apologise that there was no one else, (no girl's and the boys program had ended for the year as it was spring). I recommended she really looks for a women's rugby club at uni as she really wanted to play.

Back then I believe the total number of women in Rugby was less than 5k in total, mostly via university. Any girl who played they almost all where daughters of rugby players and their friends or younger sisters of boys who went every weekend. Must have been even lower in 2005, though a few years around that time they started playing 6 nations matches at Twickenham. The 2010 world cup came and interest expanded and numbers rose to around 12k-15k over the next 4 years. At this point it appear there was a massive expansion of tag rugby in primary schools exposing so many girls to the game as they could play with boys.

2014 comes a RWC win and in 3 years women's Rugby expands to 26k. That's 5 times the number when I attempted and even more then when you were here coaching. Considering the likes of Burford started with England when you were here, imagine what 6 times the talent pool, most of it being developed at much earlier ages starting with tag rugby in primary school (that never happened back then) and most it no longer having to wait until 18 or 19 at university to play for the first time as they often clubs and even school rugby now. No wonder there is an explosion in talent. Still it's only roughly on par with New Zealand's playing numbers (England only overtook them a year ago)so the true impact could be still to come.

While schools still can't always put together teams, there are school schemes where our school any any school in London can take 6 or 7 girls to train with other schools locally if we want. There are these innerwarrior camps getting 3-4k women trying it out (from the 10k that attend) for the first time each year and the RFU announced 300 new wome's teams (I think there are only All of this is part of the RFUs ambition to get 50k females in rugby in the next 4 years. The player pool could even get better. You ca see why English women's rugby is in a really exciting place right now.

Their coach at the time it was filmed is Canada U18 girls' coach and has recently become the first (I think) women's university coach to be paid a reasonable annual salary.

Yeah. I was surprised to learn off a few of of female Canadian teachers that most sporty girls in Canada would have given rugby a go at some time. It must be depressing thinking just how much potential is there and available to be developed, if only it would be.